Water Treatment Process

Water is a colorless, tasteless, and odorless chemical substance which is the main constituent of the Earth and also the living organisms. Water is crucial to our survival and is the life giver. We depend on water to live and no life exists without water. According to Ericsson and Steffen (2016), safe and efficient treatment of water has been among the major public health advances of the 20th century. Without it, waterborne diseases would spread rapidly in most public water systems and can be detrimental to our health. There are six important steps in the water treatment process, namely coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, disinfection and finally is the storage of water in storage reservoirs (refer to Figure 1 Appendix

This process involves removing of suspended solids such as chemical flocs and precipitates in suspension that is heavier than the water. According to Ersoz and Barott (2012), the sedimentation process occurs when the gravitational force causes the settlement of the suspended solids and consequently they are removed from water by precipitating at the bottom of a circular or rectangular tank. An effective sedimentation process removes as much of the suspended materials as possible prior to filtration. The process of sedimentation takes place in a sedimentation tank and is separated into four zones which is the inlet zone, settling zone, sludge zone, and outlet

Hypochlorite tablets are usually used for emergency disinfections in times of disasters when normal water treatment is not operating. The physical disinfection which is using the UV radiation is an eco-friendly technique as no chemicals are added into the water. UV radiation can help to destroy microorganisms that are present in the water such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites as well as decomposing harmful chemicals that can be harmful to our health. Neither the taste nor smell of the water is affected by this process. Fluoride is sometimes added into the water to support good dental